Eye of the World Read Along Week 3

Welcome to week 3 of the awesome Eye of the World read along :D This week is hosted by Nrlymrtl at Dab of Darkness so pop over there for the linky :D. Also a reminder that this week goes through Chapter 20 so there will be spoilers!

1) In this section of the reading, we learn that Perrin and Mat are also having wicked dreams. Add to that, Min’s visions for each of those in the small party. Prophesy, portents and dreams are playing a bigger and bigger role in this epic tale. Are you enjoying this plot device?

Yup, I am loving all the foreshadowing! Though I have to say that I don’t have much of an idea what it all means yet :D. I think it’s hilarious, though, that I said last week “wouldn’t it be funny if we found out the other boys were having the same dreams” and then just that happened. Mr. Jordan certainly wrote that plot development well to trick my brain into it ;-). Min’s visions were certainly an interesting edition though, since they went beyond the subtle portents that only the reader realizes are important and basically smacked us over the head with foreshadowing, however strange a lot of it was. Those will certainly be paragraphs to refer back to in the future though! Rand should have written them down, haha.

2) The Whitecloaks (AKA Children of the Light) make their first real appearance in the tale and of course, Mat has to play one of his tricks. Funny? Dangerous? What did you think of Rand’s reaction?

Of course Mat had to go and get himself noticed, he wouldn’t be Mat otherwise right? ;-) However both of the boys seemed to be acting a bit less terrified than they should have been. This was of course most noticeable with Rand’s reaction since we were privy to his thoughts and there was definitely something strange going on there. Some sort of possession starting perhaps? If so, then by whom? I really wish that he trusted Moraine enough to tell her, since this seems like something she should be aware of….

3) Nynaeve found them! What do you think Moiraine and Nynaeve said to each other behind that closed door at the inn?

Haha, I agree with the children, not a conversation I would want to be there for! Though it seems like the women have developed a grudging respect for each other as they have spent more time in each other’s company. I mostly assume the conversation was along the lines of Nynaeve saying stupid things and Moraine working very hard not to throttle her ;-).

4) The party has to do a swift exit from the inn because of the Fade Rand saw during his milk run. How do you think they were found?

Excellent question. I’m worried it was because of the peddler that Rand ran into on the streets and so wonderfully told everything to. Especially since nothing else came of that encounter that we found out about, and that would be a horrible oversight on Jordan’s part if it was just a random encounter, it seems possible that the peddler sold them out. I thought he would sell them out to the Whitecloaks, but I suppose he could have decided to let something slip to a Darkfriend *shiver*.

5) Moiraine burns a lot of power in these chapters: appears to become a giantess to step over the city wall; a wall of flame to hold off the Trollocs; laying a false trail; setting wards in the spooky city. Do you think this shows the limits of her powers, or has she got more to give?

No way, there is definitely going to be more in some epic battles in the future :D. For one thing, it sounded like her powers are stronger when she works with the female elements of water and air instead of fire and earth (those are the correct ones right?) and so I think when she is working with the correct elements and in the right setting she will show even more epic power. I mean, from a literary perspective, you can’t show all the cards in the first half of the book ya know ;-).

6) A lot happens at Shadar Logoth, where the party hopes to hide from the Trollocs and Myrddral. What do you think Mordeth is? And the misty Mashadar? As Lan contemplates, the Myrdral must drive the Trollocs into the city to search for them, but what is driving the Myrddral?

It sounds like Mordeth is some spooky ghost that has hung around cursed since he brought about the fall of Shadar Logoth right? And Mashadar is the embodiment of the evil that got created/called through all the bad things Mordeth caused…. Maybe? I was a little hazy (haha) on all the bad voodoo stuff from the story, but got the gist of ahhhh bad place! ;-) The question of what is driving the Myrdraal is an important one though! I’m wondering if the Dark One has become able to exert his will again, even if he is trapped somewhere still.

7) This section certainly leaves us on a cliff-hanger with the party separated. Worried? Perrin and Egwene found each other, but then galloped headlong into the river. Mat, Rand, and Thom made it onto a boat, The Spray, captained by Domon. Now Captain Domon makes a comment about the Trollocs following him; why do you think that is?

I’m pretty sure no one is going to die yet, it just seems too early in the book and Jordan doesn’t seem like that kind of an author (don’t break my heart man!). It could be that the party stays separated for a while (Moraine should really learn the first rule of dungeon crawls….), but Moraine did say that she could find them all, so I’m thinking she’ll be able to reunite everyone as long as Egwene can make it to a shore without Trollocs. I’m hoping that Domon has just been in country where the Trollocs are roaming a lot, but perhaps there is more going on with them than we realized in our little farm boy adventure!

And with that, let’s discuss :D. Let me know what you think of the chapters this week and whether you agree with my answers ;-). Next week we are back here with chapters 21-27, yey!

Comments

Great answers! You DO have a lot of insight into what’s going on. I’m totally loving all of this. Padan Fain isn’t an oversight. We’ll see more of him. And Robert Jordan really isn’t the type for oversights. Brandon Sanderson reports literally hundreds of pages of notes, so he never forgets a character or plotline. Trust me! :D

You are so right: if only Rand would tell Moiraine what is going on! I suspect that things would be so different if he could just trust her. I am fairly certain she would be very interested to know about the scary dreams as they are obviously more than they seem. However, I can understand how difficult it is for the villagers to trust an outsider, plus I don’t think the lads really want to know that their dreams are as dangerous as they suspect . . .

I suspect that there is more to Captain Domon than we would expect, as ‘chance’ encounters may be much more significant than we expect in this series. As we saw with Egwene’s choice to accompany the lads, it seems like this group of youngsters have a collective destiny of some sort, which will draw other significant figures into their paths. Look at Min: was it pure chance that she had revealed herself to Moiraine on the Aes Sedai’s passage through Baerlon going to the Two Rivers?

I imagine many little hints will pass us by as we read, but that Mr Jordan had them all listed for reference.

Haha, yes I can only imagine the list of notes Jordan had next to him while writing, so crazy!! And I suppose the story wouldn’t be as good if the boys just told Moraine, since plot twists and tension are the name of the game!

I too would really like to know what drove the myrddral and trollocs into Shadar Logoth – what’s badder than bad, right?

I so want these idiots to trust Moiraine, but I guess that would be hard for them. I mean, they have spent their entire lives in Two Rivers, trusting only Two Rivers folks or similar folks who come for fairs and peddling. But to trust Moiraine is a foreign concept – she’s a lady and an Aes Sedai – so high above them.

I wonder if we will learn later on how Master Fitch the innkeeper fared – was his place really set on fire after Rand & Company abruptly left? Who and how many were hurt?

I just think it’s funny that they obviously have trusted her, since they’ve come along with her on this obviously dangerous journey, basically entrusting her with their lives, but they aren’t willing to tell her about some silly dreams! Also I wish she had made some small effort to be less scary so they would have trusted her *sigh* Moraine Moraine….